Newsvetter is the first Internet news vetting and news delivery service that establishes a "quality" standard for submitting story ideas to the news media. It also provides key tools for people with little or no experience in media relations to identify, build and submit quality news ideas to the media.
The main benefits are: to make sure that news presenters (defined as anyone who wants to share a story idea with the media) have answered key questions about the substance of their news before they send it to the media for consideration; make sure news presenters have answered key questions about a media person's publication and news beat; and make sure news presenters are accountable for the quality of their work.
Currently anyone can send anything through a news wire service or directly to a member of the media. As a result the media are being bombarded with poorly written and irrelevant pitches and press releases at an unprecedented rate (Chris Anderson of Wired recently mentioned over 300 per day).This is exacerbating an already tense relationship between news media and news presenters. Newsvetter was designed to reduce "news spam" and to ensure that relationships with the media are based on the consistent delivery of what they really want - quality news stories.
Newsvetter believes a "quality" standard for delivering news and an open and honest dialogue between the news media and news presenters will restore trust, provide new sources for stories, and build productive working relationships.
The success of Newsvetter is dependent on news media and news presenters changing how they interact with each other. For news presenters, it means putting aside the usual strategies and tactics of media relations (e.g., write a press release, send the release over the wire, repackage the press release and pitch a list of media targets via email, phone call to follow up etc.) and focus purely on answering the key questions about why your news matters. It means having the courage to go back to management or clients and tell them they you don't have enough information to submit a quality news story. It means also taking responsibility for what you submit to the news media on behalf of your company/organization or your clients. For the news media it means helping news presenters do their jobs better. Instead of ignoring their emails, tell them where they went wrong or how they can improve their news story.
I've worked in marketing communications and PR for many years. This project really started after I left my job at a PR firm. As an independent consultant I was able to explore and practice alternative strategies for sharing news with the media outside of the typical press release and pitch. This summer I emptied my business account and built this Web site which is really a summation of all I have learned from my personal experience and research.
There isn't enough space here to cite every resource that I used to create Newsvetter. A lot comes from my personal experience working with journalists on stories. For this project, I did interview journalists from such publications as Forbes Life, Washington Post, PC World, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and read a lot of interviews with reporters in places like the Bulldog Reporter (Thank you Brian Pittman!). Other great sources of information came from bloggers like Brian Solis and select bloggers from Social Media Today.
Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine. He's the guy that posted over 300 email addresses on his blog from PR people who sent him "PR spam", many from well-known PR firms like Ogilvy and Edelman. He probably did the most of anyone to support the need for something like Newsvetter. Google Chris Anderson if you're interested in more details.
Visit the Web site to learn more. Consider becoming part of the Newsvetter community and feel free to leave comments about the site at the blog.
Newsvetter's Beta site was developed by level os using Drupal's open source content management platform.
Andrew Fowler. Contact me by using the "Contact" link on the site.